With the release of the initial BCS standings for the 2008 season Sunday, the Ball State University football team achieved another first: a ranking in the BCS standings.
The Cardinals (7-0, 3-0 Mid-American Conference) were ranked No. 20 in the first installment of the 2008 BCS standings, a college football ranking system that is used at the end of the regular season to help determine what teams make the biggest bowl games.
The Cardinals' No. 20 ranking put them fifth among schools not from one of the six conferences - the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, PAC 10 and SEC - whose champions receive an automatic bid to one of the BCS bowl games. No. 11 University of Utah of the Mountain West Conference, No. 12 Boise State University of the Western Athletic Conference, No. 14 Texas Christian University of the Mountain West Conference and No. 19 University of Tulsa of Conference USA were ranked higher than Ball State.
The BCS standings are comprised of two human polls - Harris Interactive and the USA Today polls - and six computer polls - the Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe polls.
Ball State's highest ranking was from the computer polls, whose average put them at No. 17 in the country. The Cardinals were No. 20 in the Harris Interactive poll and No. 22 in the USA Today poll.
Teams receive points for their standing in each of the polls based on where they are ranked. The higher a team is ranked, the more points it gets. For the computer polls, each team's highest and lowest ranking is eliminated, and the sum of the remaining four rankings is divided by 100 to get the team's point total.
At the end of the season, the two teams with the highest BCS ranking play in the BCS National Championship Game. The matchups for the other BCS bowls - Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl - are chosen from the champions of the six major conferences and other at-large teams.
One team from one of the mid-major conferences - Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, Sun Belt Conference and Western Athletic Conference - can earn an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game.
For a team such as Ball State to make a BCS bowl, it would have to be the highest-ranked team from one of the five mid-major conferences. It would also have to be ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings or ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS standings if its ranking is better than a conference champion from a conference that gets an automatic bid to one of the BCS bowls.
BCS StandingsINITIAL POLL
| Team | Average |
| 1. Texas | 0.9979 |
| 2. Alabama | 0.9487 |
| 3. Penn State | 0.8666 |
| 4. Oklahoma | 0.8319 |
| 5. Southern California | 0.7751 |
| 6. Oklahoma State | 0.7727 |
| 7. Georgia | 0.7201 |
| 8. Texas Tech | 0.7127 |
| 9. Ohio State | 0.7030 |
| 10. Florida | 0.6990 |
| 11. Utah | 0.6345 |
| 12. Boise State | 0.5870 |
| 13. LSU | 0.4987 |
| 14. Texas Christian | 0.4197 |
| 15. Missouri | 0.3682 |
| 16. South Florida | 0.3296 |
| 17. Pittsburgh | 0.2831 |
| 18. Georgia Tech | 0.2405 |
| 19. Tulsa | 0.2368 |
| 20. Ball State | 0.2342 |
| 21. Brigham Young | 0.2171 |
| 22. Northwestern | 0.1620 |
| 23. Kansas | 0.1489 |
| 24. Minnesota | 0.1426 |
| 25. Florida State | 0.1120 |
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